I wouldn't be surprised if you received considerable need-based aid from HYS. That should narrow the gap in cost between HYS and CCN considerably. You should also think about where and what kind of law you want to practice, and whether your chosen career would qualify for LRAP.

Yale is the only school that should be coming into the discussion when talking about turning down 200K+ from Chicago/Columbia. And even then there's a strong case to be made that if you just want biglaw (particularly NYC biglaw) that CC is still the better choice.

soj wrote:Full tuition scholarships at Chicago and NYU often have earlier deadlines, so you might have to decide before receiving financial aid offers from Harvard and Stanford.

which is my big concern

Does anyone know when you usually hear back about aid from Harvard and Stanford?

You can probably push on this if you explain your situation to them. I wouldn't make any decisions before calling Stanford's Financial Aid people to see if they can give you an amount before X/XX/2012.

soj wrote:Full tuition scholarships at Chicago and NYU often have earlier deadlines, so you might have to decide before receiving financial aid offers from Harvard and Stanford.

which is my big concern

Does anyone know when you usually hear back about aid from Harvard and Stanford?

You can probably push on this if you explain your situation to them. I wouldn't make any decisions before calling Stanford's Financial Aid people to see if they can give you an amount before X/XX/2012.

Dani.B wrote:Is money ever a reason to turn down H/S? I have been accepted to Stanford, held at Harvard

Is full tuition at NYU, Chi, or Columbia >>>H/S

facts about me:

I am considered "needy": single parent household w/ income between 40-60k, other dependents in the household, plus undergrad loans. Does this give me a good chance at (considerable) money from S?

Would you prefer to go the very best schools and come out $200,000 in debt, or would you rather go to the best schools and come out without debt?

If you have dependents, then it's stupid to choose H/S at stcker over Columbia, Chicago or NYU for free.If you don't have dependents, it's probably equally stupid, but at least no one else is affected by your bad decisions.

That being said, if you get money out of either of those schools, it'll narrow the gap.But think of it this way: if you couldn't borrow the money for S/H but had to save up and pay cash, would you?

I'm in a vaguely similar situation, and based on everyone I've talked to there isn't really a correct answer here. It depends on what you want to do, how important clerkship chances are to you, where you want to practice, your comfort level with debt, etc.

That said, you might end up with pretty generous aid packages from H/S, which would change the calculus pretty dramatically.

It is precisely because you're "needy" that you should go to S--you fall right into the bracket where you will probably get enough financial aid to make up most of the difference. I'd be incredibly shocked if you didn't.

Yale is the only school that should be coming into the discussion when talking about turning down 200K+ from Chicago/Columbia. And even then there's a strong case to be made that if you just want biglaw (particularly NYC biglaw) that CC is still the better choice.

Yale is the only school that should be coming into the discussion when talking about turning down 200K+ from Chicago/Columbia. And even then there's a strong case to be made that if you just want biglaw (particularly NYC biglaw) that CC is still the better choice.